I would guess that most of these are / were very close to the end of their editions anyway. I also think that having so many unretired pieces on a dealers shelf is by nature slowing down the normal sales to retirement life of the newer pieces. This would be causing a bottleneck on dealers shelves for dealers who want to carry a full line up to better serve their customers. Basicaly what I am saying is that this should help future retirements come quicker since newer pieces 's sales aren't being watered down by the old timers.
I think we can thank Bill (H) for his tireless quest for the holy grail ...... uh I mean quest to retire the dead wood.
And Bill, oh nevermind